Arsenal entered March 1925 having lost six games in a row during which they had scored two, and conceded 14. As a result the table now looked like this…

Pos

Team

Pld

W

D

L

F

A

GAvg

Pts

1

Huddersfield Town

31

16

10

5

54

22

2.455

42

2

West Bromwich Albion

30

19

4

7

48

26

1.846

42

3

Bolton Wanderers

31

16

8

7

57

29

1.966

40

4

Newcastle United

33

12

15

6

48

30

1.600

39

5

Liverpool

30

15

7

8

51

41

1.244

37

6

Sunderland

32

16

4

12

49

41

1.195

36

7

Bury

30

12

12

6

41

39

1.051

36

8

Birmingham City

31

13

7

11

33

36

0.917

33

9

Manchester City

32

11

9

12

61

56

1.089

31

10

Notts County

29

10

10

9

26

21

1.238

30

11

Tottenham Hotspur

30

10

10

10

40

33

1.212

30

12

Cardiff City

31

11

8

12

43

40

1.075

30

13

Sheffield United

31

9

11

11

36

44

0.818

29

14

West Ham United

29

11

6

12

43

44

0.977

28

15

Burnley

31

10

8

13

41

54

0.759

28

16

Blackburn Rovers

30

9

9

12

38

45

0.844

27

17

Aston Villa

29

8

11

10

42

52

0.808

27

18

Leeds United

30

7

10

13

33

40

0.825

24

19

Arsenal

29

10

4

15

32

39

0.821

24

20

Everton

31

8

8

15

31

48

0.646

24

21

Nottingham Forest

30

5

7

18

23

54

0.426

17

22

Preston North End

30

7

2

21

25

61

0.410

16

With this decline in their form Arsenal had fallen down the table, but no serious thought was given to the notion that Arsenal would be in danger of relegation, not least because Forest had not won in their last seven games, and their case looked terminal.

In an attempt to rectify the situation, on Wednesday 4 March 1925 Arsenal bought Notts County’s Don Cock, the man who had scored against them and then been sent off in the Notts County v Arsenal game earlier in the season. He had previously played for Brentford and Fulham.

However the transfer was not a success – Knighton only used the player twice this season, (although to be fair he was injured in his second match) and Chapman gave him but one game in 1925/6 before moving him on to Clapton Orient in October 1925.

But one can understand the need for the transfer. Arsenal’s problem was that Woods, Ramsey and Toner who had played number 9, 10, and 11 through so much of the season were now all missing. Indeed of the forward line the only man with any experience in the Arsenal team was Brain and since getting his four goals against Leeds he had not scored a single goal.

Against Bolton Arsenal thus now put out an experimental forward line of Hoar, Brain, Cock, Blyth and Haden. Cock was thus playing his first match, Haden his third of the season and Blyth his second at inside left. And yet amazingly it worked as Arsenal won 1-0 with Blyth getting his first of the season.

What made the win all the more pleasing was the fact that Bolton were third at the time. While Bolton’s away form was only modest (having won 3 and drawn 6 out of the 15 away games) Arsenal’s form overall had been so poor that they were given little hope.

Except for one factor, for Bolton’s last five games had provided a very interesting set of results… At home they had won their last three scoring 12 and conceding just two, but away, they had lost both games 1-0, the second of these to bottom of the league Preston.

Date

Game

Res

Score

07 Feb 1925

Bolton Wanderers v Cardiff City

W

3-0

11 Feb 1925

Sunderland v Bolton Wanderers

L

1-0

14 Feb 1925

Preston North End v Bolton Wanderers

L

1-0

21 Feb 1925

Bolton Wanderers v Burnley

W

5-0

28 Feb 1925

Bolton Wanderers v Manchester City

W

4-2

So maybe the scoreline was not such a great achievement after all. But the result was nonetheless very welcome.

Knighton followed up the purchase of Cock with Joe Hughes from Guildford United on 10 March and he made his debut on that same day. That was in fact his only game for Arsenal, but perhaps this was not a case of Knighton being at fault, as the records show that Hughes retired from football in the summer due to a serious illness. He did however recover and became a school teacher.

In the second match of the month, on 14 March, Arsenal played Notts County away, and not surprisingly the manager put out the team that had won the week before. County had slipped considerably of late and far from being top of the table were now 10th.

Arsenal were now 18th, eight points ahead of Forest with a game in hand and there was still no worry about relegation. County also were in a bad run having not won in the last four, so there was hope, but it was not to be as County won 2-1, although there was consolation as at last Brain got another goal. Arsenal remained at before, in 18th, now eight points above both Preston and Nottingham Forest.

Meanwhile on the building front, once again we find that the Kinnaird building company had put in and were granted an application to build another single house. It really was a case of just keeping the company ticking over.

Next on 21 March Arsenal welcomed Everton, complete with Dixie Dean in the team – the first appearance of Dean at Arsenal.

With Cock now injured Woods came back at centre forward, and it was noted, Everton had only won a single game away all season. They had drawn six, that was true, but it was felt a couple of goals should do it. Mind you Arsenal hadn’t scored a couple of goals in eight games, so that was a tall order. But Arsenal were 2-0 up at half time, Everton submitted and it ended Arsenal 3 Everton 1. Woods, anxious to show that he was not going to be usurped by any newcomer got two and Baker got the other – his first of the season. It was also the first time Arsenal had scored three since December.

On the following Monday Arsenal were back at Highbury with the league game against West Ham – the club that had so exercised Knighton in terms of the FA Cup match, in his autobiography, if not in reality. But having picked up two wins in the last three games, the run was not to continue. Arsenal lost 1-2 but the score was not the key issue of the day – only 10,000 turned up at Highbury – their lowest in the first division since returning to the top division in 1919. It was of course a Monday late afternoon game, but even so there had been other midweek games with much higher crowd figures than this; it was an exceptionally low turnout.

This was the last game for Tom Whittaker; his only game of this season. He had played just 64 games for the club but his impact behind the scenes, returning the following season as assistant trainer was much, much greater, and he went on to be a major force in the club as manager winning two League titles and the FA Cup as manger before his untimely death in 1953.

The final game of the month saw Arsenal lose 2-0 away to Sunderland. In the Sunderland team was Charlie Buchan. One suspects that this was the moment that Sir Henry Norris decided that Buchan, or a player very much like him, was what Arsenal needed. And indeed following the 10,000 crowd for the West Ham game, maybe it was also the moment that he knew that Knighton most certainly had to go. Although of course it is possible that discussions with Chapman had started at the game against Huddersfield on 14 February.

The Sunderland game was the end of the League football for the month, but on Monday 30 March there was another game at Highbury in which the proposed new offside law was tried out once more. The game was Amateurs of the South v Professionals of the South and was in aid of the FA Benevolent Fund. Unfortunately I can’t find a report of the game nor even the score, but I suspect there were a number of other games of this type held to allow managers to consider what they were going to do in relation to the new rule.

However discussion was not just of the off-side rule, for elsewhere at this time there was also a growing conversation ensuing about water shortages as what turned out to be the driest six months of the 20th century continued to deliver no sign of rain.

Here’s the table for the end of the month

Pos

Team

P

W

D

L

F

A

GAvg

Pts

1

West Bromwich Albion

35

20

7

8

53

31

1.710

47

2

Huddersfield Town

34

17

12

5

57

24

2.375

46

3

Newcastle United

37

15

16

6

59

34

1.735

46

4

Bury

35

15

14

6

49

42

1.167

44

5

Bolton Wanderers

34

17

9

8

61

30

2.033

43

6

Sunderland

36

18

6

12

56

44

1.273

42

7

Liverpool

34

17

7

10

56

49

1.143

41

8

Tottenham Hotspur

36

13

12

11

48

38

1.263

38

9

Birmingham City

35

13

10

12

38

42

0.905

36

10

West Ham United

34

13

9

12

49

48

1.021

35

11

Notts County

33

11

11

11

29

25

1.160

33

12

Manchester City

34

12

9

13

64

60

1.067

33

13

Cardiff City

34

12

8

14

46

46

1.000

32

14

Sheffield United

35

10

12

13

42

51

0.824

32

15

Blackburn Rovers

33

9

11

13

40

48

0.833

29

16

Burnley

34

10

9

15

42

60

0.700

29

17

Leeds United

35

8

12

15

40

48

0.833

28

18

Arsenal

34

12

4

18

38

46

0.826

28

19

Aston Villa

33

8

12

13

42

59

0.712

28

20

Everton

35

10

8

17

35

52

0.673

28

21

Preston North End

34

9

3

22

32

65

0.492

21

22

Nottingham Forest

34

5

9

20

24

58

0.414

19

There were still eight games to go, meaning Preston could repeat their escape act and end up on 37 points. Arsenal therefore did need to win a few more games. And it is also, at this point, worth noting Arsenal’s away form this season. Only the two clubs heading for relegation had done worse on the road. Here’s the away form table…

Pos

Club

P

W

D

L

F

A

G.Av

Pts

17

Everton

16

1

6

9

12

29

0.414

8

18

Leeds United

14

2

3

9

13

26

0.500

7

19

West Ham United

15

2

2

11

19

38

0.500

6

20

Arsenal

14

2

2

10

12

26

0.462

6

21

Nottingham Forest

14

1

2

11

11

36

0.306

4

22

Preston North End

14

1

2

11

5

32

0.156

4

And here is the usual summary of the month’s game.

Game

Date

Opposition

H/A

Res

Score

Crowd

30

07/03/1925

Bolton

H

W

1-0

35,000

31

14/03/1925

Notts County

A

D

1-2

12,000

32

21/03/1925

Everton

H

W

3-1

20,000

33

23/03/1925

West Ham

H

L

1-2

10,000

34

28/03/1925

Sunderland

A

L

0-2

18,000

The series continues

Henry Norris at the Arsenal

We are currently evolving a complete series on Henry Norris at the Arsenal. The full index to the articles that cover the period from 1910 to this point are given in Henry Norris at the Arsenal

Perhaps the most popular element in the Norris story is that of Arsenal’s promotion to the first division in 1919. Therefore we have separated that story out below. It raises in part the question of the validity of the chief critic of Henry Norris: the Arsenal manager from 1919 to 1925 who Norris sacked. Thus in the selection below we include articles which consider the question as to the validity of Knighton’s testimony.

For the complete index on Norris at the Arsenal please see the link above.